Construing and constructing the South China Sea beyond state‐led environmentalism: Vernacularizing geographical, geopolitical and sociotechnical imaginaries of territory

Abstract

During the 2010s, the South China Sea (SCS) became a geopolitical flashpoint over the sovereignty of the Paracels and Spratlys. China envisioned its transformation of coral reefs into military bases and island cities as an SCS 'green construction' project. This article analyses how the SCS is discursively construed and practically constructed as maritime national territory, by mobilizing fishing legacies and extending state limits through 'state-led environmentalism' rhetoric. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in China, I show that state-led environmentalism is a hierarchical process that intermittently co-opts and excludes local populations to advance the state's territorial ambitions, which are anchored in geographical, geopolitical and socio-technical imaginaries of 'maritime civilization'. Yet, I also show that in this process, the SCS emerges as spaces of vernacularized political claims. Thus, I argue that territory is not only a political technology of control but also vernacular practice through which universalizing discourses-whether on the Exclusive Economic Zone regime, sovereignty or nature-are adapted and modified.

Guest Editorial: Ecological knowledge co‐production and the contested imaginaries of development in Southeast Asia

“…In the articles that follow, this dynamic of co‐production and its connection to contested imaginaries of development has been explored through different conceptual modes and empirical contexts. Roszko's (2023) paper spotlights the interplay between geopolitical and scientific expertise as co‐produced knowledges through an exploration of the discursive construction of the South China Sea. Arnez (2023) contributes an investigation of the networked processes and procedures that co‐produce ecological knowledge in the space between sea and coast in the Straits of Melaka.…”

Editorial: Seven decades of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography—looking back and future directions

“…The bridging of human and environmental geography is a proclaimed strength of the SJTG . This issue presents a special section on ecological knowledge production in Southeast Asia (Farnan et al ., 2023; Arnez, 2023; Kamiński, 2023; Roszko, 2023). In addition, it also contains four physical and environmental geography papers.…”

Heritagising the South China Sea: appropriation and dispossession of maritime heritage through museums and exhibitions in Southern China

“…The museum was intended to display their grandfather’s navigational guide and show the process of turning fossilised giant clamshells into fine artwork. The centuries-old fossilised shells of highly endangered bivalve molluscs ( Tridacninae subfamily) that are on a brink of extinction were extracted by Tanmen fishermen from coral reefs in the Spratlys and Paracels, two archipelagos claimed in whole by China and Vietnam and in part by Taiwan and a number of Southeast Asian states, as well as from the Scarborough shoal, which is claimed by China, Taiwan and the Philippines (Roszko 2023 ). The extraction required the use of propellers set on small boats, which broke coral that concealed the shells.…”

“…The extraction required the use of propellers set on small boats, which broke coral that concealed the shells. Although most of these giant clams were already dead when harvested, their extraction by crane-equipped modern trawlers destroyed entire coral reefs (Roszko 2023 ). Attractively polished, giant clamshells were sold in more than one hundred shops belonging to Tanmen fishing families, reaching prices numbering in the thousands of dollars (see Figure 1 ).…”

“…In the few past years, Tanmen fishers gained a reputation as China’s maritime militia and for shoring up China’s maritime sovereignty through their heavy involvement in the construction of artificial islands in the SCS. With the support of heavy subsidies from the state, many of these fishers started joint-stock companies and purchased steel-hulled fishing trawlers that operated in the Paracels, Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal waters (Zhang 2016 ; Zhang and Bateman 2017 ; Roszko 2021 , 2023 ). The Shanghai-based businesswoman who owned this museum struck a deal with one of these companies from which she purchased the finest pieces of fossilised giant clamshells collected from the coral reefs around the Scarborough Shoal, whose clear waters guaranteed the highest quality of this marine product.…”